Photo Finish

Recently, I had an epiphany... okay, another epiphany!  I tend to have these often. 

When the kids were younger, I had wonderful intentions of creating individual scrapbooks of all their momentous occasions. I also wanted to create a family vacation scrapbook. With this plan in mind, I would print duplicates of pictures (yes, I print pictures) so I could make sure each child would have their "events" documented.  

A few weeks ago I realized now that they are about to turn 11 & 8 that I would not be able to make these individual scrapbooks a reality. I don't have the time although I admit, sadly, I probably do have the supplies. Even though the "dream" of individual scrapbooks dimmed with time, my purchasing of scrapbook supplies did not.

I've decided to change the style of my scrapbooking to Project Life. Basically, over a two page scrapbook spread you document the events of a whole week using photos and journaling cards. I've "tested" this style in the past and I find it more doable. What make this style nice is that if there is a special event like a birthday or vacation I can choose to scrapbook more than two pages. 

Knowing I would be following this plan, I realized the amount of duplicate photos I had in my organized photo chaos was overwhelming. In order to start this new project, I needed to put my photos in chronological order and weed out the duplicates. Behold the mess you see above! Now don't worry, I didn't waste trees and toss the extra photos. I have them set aside for the kids to go through and make their own scrapbooks during their summer vacation. 

The above photo containers are filled with photos in chronological order starting with January 2006. I have them going from most recent to latest so I can work on them in either order. 

These smaller bins hold the most recent photos so that I can experience the accomplishment of completing some more  recent events. Also, I have been taken photos with the Project Life format in mind so these will go a little more quickly than the older photos.

One major plus from this whole photo reorganization, which took almost a week,  was I went through a few drawers looking for extra pictures put in "incorrect" places. There it was right in the middle of the drawer under a few layers of "stuff" the Cricut Straight from the Nest cartridge I misplaced quite a few months ago. Now if only I could find my engagement/wedding ring that I "misplaced" almost 2 years ago. The finding of this cartridge has renewed my hope in the possibility that some day my ring will be found. 

My Organized Mess

I love having my "craft room". I know it is rare to have an extra room in a home that can be used for someones passion to create. 

Lately though, I just haven't had enough space to do the projects I've been asked to do. No matter how many times I reorganize and "simplify" this room, I find myself working on the floor surrounded by multiple supplies. Part of this issue is that the elements I'm working on are larger than my current craft table. 

I do have plans for this room to make it more to my liking and usage but I actually have an even grander plan that would result in converting my garage into a large craft room - its my dream, you know like the HGTV Dream House is a dream. 

All this being said, I wanted to show that yes, creating can be messy even for me. People that know me personally know that I'm a bit of an organizational geek. In my house, everything has a place and I'm constantly changing and streamlining. When I tell people my house is a mess, usually I get a questionable look or a "where?" So this picture is a confession of guilt that "yes, I can be messy." Oh and just so you know this room looks pretty much the same as I type this post. A few of the items were taken to their new "bulletin board" homes but once I got home from getting the kids from school it became homework, dinner, more homework and now blogging.  I will confess though that before I go to bed I will go in and pick up......I just can't leave it like that, even though I could just shut the door. It just the organizer in me.  

The Apples Don't Fall Far From The Tree

Emily has been wanting her room changed around for several weeks.  Sadly, the weekend we had promised to to do so was overshadowed by the recent loss of our good friends young son.

Emily's furniture is a little complicated and to be honest when it was assembled by those who brought it, I didn't watch how it was done.  I really felt in order to change the furniture around I needed Dave's help but sadly he informed me that he would have to work this past Saturday.  Well, I took the matter into my own hands and Friday evening decided to tackle the task by myself. It was frustrating but I figured it out, had Emily lend a hand and boy was she ecstatic that her room was changed exactly the way she wanted it.  Later that night Matt asked when we could do his room. I told him soon.  Little did I know where this would lead.

Saturday while Dave was at work once again Matt asked when we could change his room around.  I told him I would do it next week when he was at school but he told me that he wanted to be able to help so........we changed his room.  I asked him where he wanted his bed and we "created" a sleep and dressing/play area.  

Clearly my "need of change" gene is in both the kids.  To be honest, it made me want to do a little more changing around in the house but I refrained. 

Is It Any Surprise

Today, I had a crazy busy day working on creating the elements needed for a bulletin board  I'm making for Hackensack Christian Schools. If you want to see the end result, check out my blog Always Put Together.

What I think most of you will find hilarious but so me is that my "in the middle of the chaos" break was changing around the living room. Okay, some of you can stop laughing.  My family knows me for being the girl who could never leave her bedroom the same for long.  My poor family got more bruises from walking in my room not knowing I had made changes.  

The design of our living room pretty much dictates very few placement options for our sofas but the ends tables, ottomans and benches can move.  So, I decided seeing the weather has changed (we have been able to keep our windows open for 4 days now) it is now time for the living room to "change".  Dave isn't home from work yet but I am sure when he walks in the door he won't say a word but the smile on his face will say it all.  Thankfully, he is okay with my crazy need for change.  

Job of the day - Thursday!

Basement Before

I shared these pictures on my other blog "Always Put Together" but just had to show you all what I was up to for most of the day.

We are in garage sale preparation mode here at the Wessel home.  Today's task was to take the items that have been "dumped" on the mechanical side of the basement and sort, price and box them up for the garage sale.

I started working at around 11.  Took a break to shower and go to Emily's orthodontist appointment (3:15) then came back and finished up a few things I had left to do.  

The kids did do their part today by helping transport the items from the basement to the garage.

I cannot tell you how much I love seeing the basement like this ..... I keep going down to look!  :)  Oh, and the garage sale items are neatly place in the garage against the wall awaiting their sale date.

It was a good day, exhausting but good!!

Basement Before

Basement After

Basement After

Garage Sale Items in Garage

Job of the Day!

Today's job of the day was to clean out the garage and get it ready for the garage sale items currently "housed" in the basement. Our garage tends to be pretty empty except for the fact that Emily & Matt like to just step in the side door and drop all their items right there - as you can see by the before picture.  

We emptied out all the "stuff" and the kids made a keep and sell pile of all their outdoor "toys". Each helped with the sweeping of the garage and then we put everything back.  

After this job, we also cleaned out my car.  Its funny how the kids accumulate so many things in the pockets and crevices of the backseat.  Well, the car is cleaned out and even vacuumed.  Its nice to have these two things crossed off the to do list.  

Next up will be boxing up all of our garage sale items and bringing them to the garage - at least now there is a place for them!!

View from the side door

After view from side door

View from the front of the garage

A New Order

I've been meaning to get on here to blog but my days and nights have been filled with a flurry of activity.

Monday I started a new cleaning schedule as suggested in this book "The Good Wife's Guide" by Darlene Schacht. It seemed pretty straightforward and not as labor intensive.

A few tasks are done every day such as making sure beds are made, dishes done and laundry. Then throughout the day, you complete three 10 minute "tidy sessions" and one "shed your junk" session. Each day has a main task......Monday, the first day of the week is the bathrooms - my most disliked task!!! Tuesday the bedrooms, Wednesday the kitchen, Thursday grocery/errand day and Friday vacuuming and mopping all floors plus cleaning any common rooms that haven't been completed. Saturday is for outdoor yard work, garage and car clean up.

Sunday is church and family day.

I was excited to start it and even after a very full week (with one day and the weekend to go), I'm still pretty happy with the schedule.

Here is my issue which I'm sure all of you are well aware of my issue.....I can't just do things on a small scale.

The bathroom day was pretty straightforward. Did I like it....not in the least!! LOL!! I was able to spend my afternoon cutting the materials I needed for a banner I have to complete by Friday for a bridal shower. Oh, did I mention that I spent up until 11 shopping for cutting blades for my Cricut so I could cut above said materials. Cleaning started later than what I wanted but it got accomplished!

My big issue came on bedroom day. One of the things I love that she suggests in her book is that the bedrooms should be clutter free and havens for rest. Well, I'm not a clutter person but my book collection has grown and my dresser top was getting a little over taken by things. So, I was determined to clear things out. Our bedroom alone took me most of the morning. Boy, that doesn't sound like it should be that big of a deal but I failed to mention that this "decluttering" led to cleaning out the linen closet, my entire bedside table and the storage area behind our bed. I was able to do a quick dusting and vacuuming of the kids rooms....thankfully their rooms were still intact from the deep clean we did during winter break.

Yesterday was the kitchen...once again I couldn't do it small.... I ended up cleaning out all the drawers, the snack area and the cabinet above the fridge. Relocated some small appliances. Of course, I had to reorganize my cookbooks located in the dining room cabinet and because I had a few in the storage cube in the living room that became a cleaning target also and the rest of the books located in the living room. I told you I can't do SMALL!!! I did get time before getting the kids to do some more work on the banner - which I completed while the kids were at AWANA last night and delivered this morning.

Today I did the grocery shopping, ran a few errands then came home to work in my craft room. I have some "undone" projects that I wanted to get working on and I started cleaning out unneeded scrapbooks now that I will be doing Project Life.

So, as you can see my days have been filled and my nights well lets just say homework and dinner.....that pretty much sums up the evenings.

I do think this new schedule will get easier after all sooner or later I will have simplified our home so much I won't be able to go BIG!!! Yeah, right ......I'll always be going big if not in my home, someone else's.

Ahhh....More Organization!!!

If you know me at all, you know how much I love to organize and be organized.

I've been wanting to find a way to store the pictures of the items I've crafted. I like having a hard copy of them in case I need to show anyone what I've done. I so didn't want to have a bunch photo albums, they take up too much space.

So, my solution was I sorted the pictures by category (picture frames, photo cubes, letters, etc.) then I hole punched them and attached them with binder rings. The binder rings make it very easy to add more photos.

I am actually pretty please with this solution.

All in Place

I made these family clipboards a while ago and today they finally made it to their "home" on the wall heading down to the basement.

The main purpose of these is to be able to take all the papers that muddle my fridge or calendar and clip them to the appropriate family member that it belongs too.

I am not the "hanger" of the family. I can create but for some reason "hanging" eludes me. Today though with drill in hand I made my pilot hole and screwed in the hooks.

Of course, tonight when Dave gets home he'll tell me he was going to do it but it is nice to surprise him with the fact that it is already done.

As you can see, I already cleared off the fridge of the kids school agendas and papers. I love organization!!!

Day 2 of Cleaning

On the second day of winter break, Matt and I tackled another area of "craziness" the downstairs play area. This is where Matt keeps all of his LEGOS and other toys that cannot be kept in his room. Emily has all of her "toys" organized in her room, so this was a job just for Matt and I. The end result was a nice neat walkway into the hall leading to the outside door in the basement. One thing is for sure.... he is not lacking when it comes to play items. I don't think Matt would agree with me on that though.

Room #3 - Living Room

I just couldn't stop with the kids rooms... I had to take it to the rest of the house. The living room found a new "look" this afternoon. Just a few shifts of the sofas and the end tables and viola a whole new look. I know it seems foolish but even this small of a change makes me happy!! Who knows what will happen the rest of this winter break.

Room #2 - Emily's Room

While I was working with Matt "spring cleaning" his room, Emily was busy working on her own room.

The funny thing is that Emily's room pretty much looks this clean all the time except for when she is in the middle of playing. When she is done, she puts everything right away.....you'd never know that she was playing in there.

It was nice though to have her take charge of her own "spring cleaning" - she even dusted all her furniture and shelves. All I did was run the vacuum after I vacuumed Matt's room.

I so love clean rooms!!!

Room #1 - Matthew's Room

Today we decided it was time to do some "spring cleaning" during winter break.

Matt and I went through all the toy bins in storage shelf and then his closet. The finished product looked awesome.... now if only it can stay that way for a while.

Matt tends to love to bring out all of his toys but struggles with putting them away. I thought that if he helped me "organize" them then maybe it would encourage him to keep it clean. Tomorrow we will be heading to the basement where his LEGO collection is "housed". It will be a little more work!!!

Creative Mess

I am very proud of the fact that I am a highly organized person - lets face it many times I find myself reorganizing my organizing just for fun or because I've been exposed to a new organizing idea. When it comes time to craft, my organizing goes out the window. You see the situation is this, I can't keep to just one craft idea at a time. Today for example in the midst of this mess I had 3 different crafts going at one time. During the dry time of one, I was working on another. The room is now back to its organized state but if you want to catch me in a total state of disarray you have to catch me in a crafting mode. Although it does get messy, crafting always puts me in a happy state of mind, so I welcome the mess....but only then!!! After all in my house, everything has a place and everything is in its place.....neurotic? yes, but it makes me happy so that is how I roll!!!

Please Change my Room!!

Emily has definitely gotten my "need for change" gene. On Saturday and then again on Sunday, she asked if I would make a few changes to her room. Both days I was not feeling up to par, so Monday after Dave and I put the Christmas decorations away and while she was at school, we did a quick placement switch of her dresser and desk. When Emily and I were out shopping the day after Christmas, we purchased this Eiffel Tower decal. Emily is so in LOVE with Paris right now. I have no idea where it came from but this girl is obsessed.

When Emily came home from school, she was thrilled her room was changed and even happier that "Paris" was on her wall. Oh, by the way, Matt's response was "what about my room?" Guess what I did the next day......no switching necessary just a good clean up of his room and a reorganizing of his closet. Both kids are very happy!!!